Review: Hot Chelle Rae, ‘Whatever’

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Review: Hot Chelle Rae, ‘Whatever’: Aidin Vaziri | Hot Chelle Rae couldn’t have existed at any other moment in time. The young Nashville quartet’s sound is tethered to contemporary hip-hop and mall punk; made by kids raised on Facebook and the Disney Channel; and driven by a collective philosophical inspiration that maybe goes as far back as the last Ke album. The title of the band’s second full-length release comes from a line in its huge breakthrough hit “Tonight, Tonight,” the most Disney-sounding pop song not to actually come from a Disney star. The rest of the album, made up of shouty songs like “I Like It Like That” and “Beautiful Freaks,” falls in line with Hot Chelle Rae’s impossibly cheery outlook and terrifyingly synthetic soul. The good news? The nightclubs of Las Vegas have a go-to soundtrack for the next six months.